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There are different choices of food you can choose for your hamster, and it will be easiest for him if you can keep him on the same diet he ate at the pet store, if he is doing well on it. That’s just one less change he will have to tolerate. You can also use human foods like fruits and veggies to supplement his diet. Feed him healthy insects, like vegetables, rather than too many fruits, which may hold too much sweetness for his health.
If your hamster has not been handled a lot, he may be more timid and shy at first. He may even bite, but they generally do this out of fear or surprise – they’re not trying to hurt you. You should be patient with your hamster, and let him adjust to his new home.
Hamster care also understands meeting your pet’s need to chew and to exercise. A wheel like we discussed earlier can keep him well-trained, since hamsters were born to run and scurry, not to sit in a cage. Wooden toys and structures will give your hammie something to sharpen his teeth on, and keep them in top shape. Hamsters like tunnels and tubes, too – they give them a place to run and explore with their senses.
If you do not wish to breed hamsters, you might want to select a male at the pet shop, because if you pick a female, she may be pregnant when you take her home.
Breeding Hamsters for Fun
If you bought a pair of hamsters with the idea of breeding, we will assume that you spoke to the shop attendant and bought a male and a female hamster. Before you’re sure you want to breed, remember that they may have as many as twenty babies in one litter, and they may be hard to find homes for. Not to mention the fact that you may need another cage with the bars closer together, to keep the babies in. Do not assume the pet store will buy the babies, or even take them for free. They normally have steady suppliers of animals that they use all the time.
If you still want to breed your male and female hamster, care should be taken to ensure that they are the same breed of hamster. Breeding two Chinese hamsters is fine, or two Syrian hamsters. But you should not breed one of each type. If you only have one hamster, check with friends who also have hamsters, and if someone has a hamster of the opposite sex and the same species, then they should be suitable to breed with each other.
Dwarf hamsters often live in social groups, as long as they all know each other, so if you have a couple dwarf hamsters, do not be surprised to find more, one morning. They will regulate their times of breeding on their own, so you do not have to “breed” them yourself.
Female hamsters should not be bred until they are at least four to six months of age. If you breed youngger hamsters, you may risk having a sickly litter, since her hormones and energy are still taken up by her own growth. Males can be bred as early as six weeks, but it’s better to leave them away from females until they are two or three months old.
You can breed litter after litter of hamsters if you have homes for the babies, but this will shorten the lifespan of your female hamster. It’s better for her health to wait a few months between weddings, to allow her to recover her condition. Normally, the female will only be fertile until she is about fourteen months old, when she will become sterile.
Now that you have jumped headlong into hamster care, including breeding, you can teach other new fans of the animal to take proper care of their hamsters, too. You can learn more about hamsters online or in books, and share this information with friends who are also hamster owners. Teach them proper hamster care and handling, and share stories about the antics you and your pets have gotten into.
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Source by Jenny Styles
